Sunday, March 31, 2013

Freddie Mercury "smuggled Diana in to gay bar in disguise.



New book claims Queen frontman took princess to nightspot dressed as a male model



Comedienne Cleo Rocos says in her new book, The Power of Positive Drinking, that she, 

Mercury and fellow comedian Kenny Everett dressed Diana in an army jacket, cap and 

sunglasses for a night out at gay haunt the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, in South London.

Rocos says they met the princess at Everett's penthouse and revealed their plans to go to a 

gay pub later in the evening.



"Freddie told her we were going to the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, a notorious gay bar in London. 

Diana said she had never heard of it and said she'd like to come," says Rocos.


"Now this was not a good idea. 'It's not for you,' said Kenny, 'it's full of hairy gay men. 

Sometimes there are fights outside.' This didn't put her off in the slightest.

"When we walked in... we felt she was obviously Princess Diana and would be discovered at 

any minute.


"But people seemed to blank her. She sort of disappeared but she loved it."

Rocos says regulars' attention was diverted to her, Mercury and Everett and the princess was 

able to order drinks and enjoy the night out.

The Princess of Wales was killed in a car crash in Paris and 1997 and Mercury died in 1991 

after an Aids-related illness.

CREDIT:thesun.co.uk


Saturday, March 30, 2013

Swarming Robots Could Be the Servants of the Future

Researchers in the Sheffield Centre for Robotics, jointly established by the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University, have been working to program a group of 40 robots, and say the ability to control robot swarms could prove hugely beneficial in a range of contexts, from military to medical.

The researchers have demonstrated that the swarm can carry out simple fetching and carrying tasks, by grouping around an object and working together to push it across a surface.

The robots can also group themselves together into a single cluster after being scattered across a room, and organize themselves by order of priority.

Dr Roderich Gross, head of the Natural Robotics Lab, in the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering at the University of Sheffield, says swarming robots could have important roles to play in the future of micromedicine, as 'nanobots' are developed for non-invasive treatment of humans. On a larger scale, they could play a part in military, or search and rescue operations, acting together in areas where it would be too dangerous or impractical for humans to go. In industry too, robot swarms could be put to use, improving manufacturing processes and workplace safety.


The programming that the University of Sheffield team has developed to control the robots is deceptively simple. For example, if the robots are being asked to group together, each robot only needs to be able to work out if there is another robot in front of it. If there is, it turns on the spot; if there isn't, it moves in a wider circle until it finds one.
Dr Gross said: "We are developing Artificial Intelligence to control robots in a variety of ways. The key is to work out what is the minimum amount of information needed by the robot to accomplish its task. That's important because it means the robot may not need any memory, and possibly not even a processing unit, so this technology could work for nanoscale robots, for example in medical applications."
This research is funded by a Marie Curie European Reintegration Grant within the 7th European Community Framework Programme. Additional support has been provided by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.


Friday, March 29, 2013

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Thursday, March 28, 2013

March 28th's Celestial Sandwich


If you're up in late evening on Thursday, March 28th, check out the brilliant, nearly full Moon and its two lovely attendants: the ringed planet Saturn and the icy-white star Spica.

Just about every night, after the 11 o'clock news and just before heading off to bed, I take a moment to walk outside and look up into the sky. If it's clear, there's always something worth seeing. Last Sunday, for example, I was greeted by the close pairing of a crescent Moon and Jupiter. Lovely, indeed!

f it's clear on the night of Thursday, March 28th, I'll be on the lookout (and you should too) for a just-past-full Moon perched midway between the icy-white star Spica to its upper right and creamy-hued Saturn to its lower left. This grouping won't be particularly tight — Saturn and Spica are currently 17° apart, about twice the width of your fist at arm's length — but it will still look nice.

This wide spacing actually helps you take in the trio. Ordinarily such a big, fat Moon would wash out anything in its vicinity. But Spica is no slouch: it's a 1st-magnitude blue giant. Saturn reaches opposition late next month, so it's already a half magnitude brighter than Spica. Look for the trio after 11 p.m., after they've had some time to clear the eastern horizon and are well up in the southeast.

Were I on the other side of the world (say, in Mumbai, India), the Moon would appear dramatically close to Spica on the 28th and just 3° from Saturn the next night. In fact, the Moon actually occults (covers up) Spica beginning around 13h Universal Time as seen from much of southeast Asia and northern Australia. Details are available here.

For the rest of us, March 28th's celestial sandwich will simply be a nice moment to enjoy. Reflected sunlight takes about 1¼ seconds to reach us from the Moon's bleak, dusty surface. For Saturn, now just under 9 astronomical units (830 million miles) away, the travel time is 74 minutes. And the light from Spica, a star that shines 12,000 times brighter than our Sun, has been traveling about 260 years — since well before the American Revolution.

CREDIT: skyandtelescope.com

HAMSA:A totally new concept in fragrance!


A totally new concept in fragrance!

Hamsa is an exquisitely pleasing scent, carefully crafted with sacred oils from cultures and faiths around the world. The fragrance is packaged in a beautiful bottle adorned with the powerful and ancient symbol of the Hamsa, which provides protection from evil and promotes peace and prosperity. The combination of the positive powers of the sacred oils and the protection and good fortune from the Hamsa symbol make Hamsa Perfume more than just another fragrance.

The Concept

Hamsa is an age old mystical symbol that is said to bring good luck and protection from evil. Hamsa is also becoming popular as a symbol of tolerance, peace and unity since it used by Muslims and Jews alike. Designer Celine Leora has combined notes of White Lotus, Frankincense, Black Currant and Coffee, creating a fragrance that represents Eastern, Western, and Middle Eastern culture and spiritualism. By wearing the fragrance one is protected when going out of the home, while the Hamsa symbol on the bottle protects the home and its occupants


The Designer



Designer Celine Leora has been fascinated and inspired by the power of the Hamsa amulet since her childhood in N. Africa. Called by different names: The hand of Fatima or the hand of Miriam possesses mystical powers to protect those who surround themselves with it. Celine Leora has carefully crafted a magnificent fragrance and a strikingly beautiful bottle that emits strength, positive energy and good fortune. Celine traces her own personal history through the mystique of the Hamsa. From her birth in Morocco, her childhood in the Middle East, to Paris, Switzerland and now in the United States, the Hamsa has always inspired and protected her throughout her journey through life. She shares this energy, strength and power with all, in this exotic fragrance and bottle. "I developed the Idea of using the Hamsa symbol on perfume bottles, so that the symbol and its power will always be present in the home. The perfume, or cologne, can carry a scent that reminds the wearer of their positive spiritual potential."



The Oils

White Lotus:

White LotusThe fragrance of the lotus flowers essence is seen as a spiritual elixir. It helps in meditation by calming the mind; promoting peace, serenity and improving concentration. Additionally, lotus flower essence can hasten recovery from illness.

Frankincense:

FrankincenseFrankincense is considered the holy anointing oil in the Middle East and has been used in religious ceremonies for thousands of years. The fragrance is known to increase spiritual awareness, promote meditation, improve attitude and uplift spirits.

Black Currant:

Coffee BeensThe fragrance of Black Currant inspires heightened sensuality. It can enhance physical awareness by increasing sensitivity of the senses.

Coffee:

Coffee BeensThe fragrance of coffee has a calming effect while at the same time it stirs activity in the brain. Coffee aromas can work to help reduce depressive symptoms.




Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Angelina Jolie joins anti-rape drive

Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie has teamed up with Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague for a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to highlight concerns over sexual violence.

The two will visit a rescue camp for women north-west of Goma to raise awareness about warzone rape.

"This visit is about hearing first hand from people who have endured rape and sexual violence during the conflict in the eastern DRC. We want justice for the victims and we want to know how the world can protect thousands of women, men and children at risk of rape in many other conflict zones. We want to persuade governments around the world to give this issue the attention it deserves," femalefirst.co.uk quoted Jolie as saying.

"Unless the world acts, we will always be reacting to atrocities, treating survivors rather than preventing rape in the first place," added Jolie, who is a UN special envoy. 

Hague hopes to present his findings to the forthcoming Group of Eight summit in London. 

He is calling on the G8 leaders to agree that rape and sexual violence constitute breaches of the Geneva Conventions governing warfare. 

"More often than not the international community looks away, the perpetrators of these brutal crimes walk free and the cycle of injustice and conflict is repeated," he said.

"It is time for real, meaningful action by the governments of the world to say that the use of rape as a weapon of war is unacceptable, to bring perpetrators to justice and to lift the stigma from survivors. This is my personal priority for the meeting of G8 foreign ministers," he added.

CREDIT:newindianexpress.com

A Minute With: 'Twilight' author Stephenie Meyer on 'The Host'


(Reuters) - "Twilight" author Stephenie Meyer brings her romantic futuristic thriller "The Host" to movie fans on Friday, trading the vampires and werewolves for aliens who invade planet Earth, taking over human bodies.
The film stars, Saoirse Ronan as Melanie Stryder, whose body is taken over by an alien soul called Wanda. Eventually the two-in-one female team work to save the human race from total annihilation.
Meyer, 39, who was raised Mormon and attends church regularly, talked with Reuters about "The Host," working as a producer on the project and how her life has changed since the first "Twilight" film came out in 2008.
Q: How did Saoirse Ronan play Melanie and Wanda in the same body?
A: They have conversations throughout the entire film, but (she plays) two different characters that have different chemistry with two different guys. She's one person, but emoting a separate person when she's with Jared and another when she's with Ian.
Q: How did things evolve for you that you are now producing your adaptations? It didn't start that way on "Twilight."
A: It's not normal for an author to be very involved. On "Twilight," I think they were nervous about me, but I totally behaved. I came on set, I was excited, so they didn't mind having me around. With each movie I was able to be more involved.
I worked really closely with ("The Twilight Saga: New Moon" Director) Chris Weitz, especially with the casting of the side characters. We saw eye to eye really well.
Q: Did the success of "Twilight" give you producing clout?
A: After "Twilight" did really well, I think my opinion had more weight. With "The Host," from the very beginning (producer) Nick Wechsler came to me and said, 'Let's do this together.' And he meant it. I was going over the (script) notes with Andrew and the actors would come to me and say, 'What do you think?' It was a nice group. All our opinions were valued by each of us.
Q: You live in Arizona, just north of Phoenix. Do you ever think you should move to Los Angeles and work full-time in Hollywood?
A: I would never come and live here. No offense to the people that do, but I can't imagine raising kids in this town. There are a lot of plastics, even kids getting plastic surgery. And the materialism - that overwhelming sense of what you look like being the most important thing, I think that would be really difficult to live with every day. It's hard enough to be here for a week at a time. Every day you start feeling less-than because everyone's so beautiful and polished.
Q: Your three sons range from ages 10 to 15. Do they think you're the coolest mom ever because you created "Twilight?"
A: I think it's a detriment for them. It's embarrassing to have your mom be that "Twilight" lady. They would all love it if nobody knew my name. (With my oldest), people tease him a little bit. I know a lot of girls talk to him who might not otherwise. My middle son (Seth), he has a fake name. For a while it was Bernard. 'He'd be like, Hi I'm Bernard.' He doesn't like the reaction when people say, 'Oh you're that kid.'
Q: How has life changed for you since your film success?
A: People let me make movies, which is kind of cool. That certainly wasn't something anyone was going to let me do before. I've grown a lot in my confidence and in my ability to do interviews. I don't freak out as much about all these people taking pictures. I do have to be away from my kids more than I'd like, but they're so cool and mellow about it.
Q: Have you been able to fulfill any personal wishes since "Twilight" brought you to the pop culture forefront?
A: I'll tell you a story that's in the first "Twilight" book, where a little piece of me sank through to the novel. When Bella sees Edward's piano for the first time, she (vows) if she ever had a windfall, she would want to get her mom a piano like that. Well I was able to get my mom a piano like that. It was really exciting to get to do that. (Editing By Jill Serjeant and Sandra Maler)
CREDIT: Reuters.com

Who really killed bin Laden?


(CNN) -- In February, Esquire magazine published a lengthy profileof "The Man Who Killed Osama bin Laden." The story did not identify the killer by his real name, referring to him only as "the Shooter."
The Shooter told Esquire that the night bin Laden was killed he had encountered al Qaeda's leader face-to-face in the top-floor bedroom of the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where bin Laden had been hiding for more than five years.
The Shooter explained that when he found bin Laden in his bedroom the al Qaeda leader was standing up and had a gun "within reach" and it was only then that the Shooter fired the two shots into bin Laden's forehead that killed him. That account was in conflict with the account from another raid participant in a wildly successful book "No Easy Day."
Now, another member of the secretive SEAL Team 6, which executed the bin Laden raid, tells CNN the story of the Shooter as presented in Esquire is false. According to this serving SEAL Team 6 operator, the story is "complete B-S."
SEAL Team 6 operators are now in "serious lockdown" when it comes to "talking to anybody" about the bin Laden raid and say they have been frustrated to see what they consider to be the inaccurate story in Esquire receive considerable play without a response. Phil Bronstein, who wrote the 15,000-word piece about the Shooter for Esquire, was booked on CNN, Fox and many other TV networks after his story came out.
Twenty-three SEALs and their interpreter assaulted the bin Laden compound just after midnight on the morning of May 2, 2011. They shot and killed bin Laden's two bodyguards, one of bin Laden's sons and the wife of one of the bodyguards and they also wounded two other women.
The first three SEALs to make it to the top floor of bin Laden's compound where he was believed to be living were "the point man," "the Shooter" profiled by Esquire, and Matt Bissonette, the SEAL who wrote "No Easy Day"under the pseudonym Mark Owen.

What actually happened the night of the raid, according to the SEAL Team 6 operator who I interviewed, is that the "point man" ran up the stairs to the top floor and shot bin Laden in the head when he saw what looked like bin Laden poking his head out his bedroom door. The shot gravely wounded al Qaeda's leader.
Having taken down bin Laden, the point man proceeded to rush two women he found in bin Laden's bedroom, gathering them in his arms to absorb the explosion in case they were wearing suicide vests, something that was a real concern of those who planned the raid.
Two more SEALs then entered bin Laden's bedroom and, seeing that al Qaeda's leader was lying mortally wounded on the floor, finished him off with shots to the chest.
This account of bin Laden's demise is considerably less heroic than how the Shooter is presented in Esquire, in which he says he shot bin Laden while he was standing up and only after he saw that al Qaeda's leader had a gun within reach.
The SEAL Team 6 operator who spoke to me says there is no way the Shooter could have seen a gun in bin Laden's reach because the two guns that were found in bin Laden's bedroom after al Qaeda's leader was killed were only found after a thorough search of the room and were sitting on a high shelf above the frame of the door that opened to bin Laden's bedroom.
The SEAL operator also points out there was a discussion before the raid in which the assault team was told "don't shoot the guy [bin Laden] in the face unless you have to" because the CIA would need to analyze good pictures of bin Laden's face for its facial recognition experts to work effectively. Yet the Shooter in the Esquire story says he shot bin Laden on purpose twice in the forehead.
A U.S. official familiar with the details of the raid said what the SEAL Team 6 operator told me about how Bin Laden was killed is in line with what happened, and that account "has it right in my view."
The SEAL Team 6 operator also tells CNN that the Shooter was "thrown off" of Red Squadron, the core of the SEAL Team 6 group that carried out the bin Laden raid, because he was bragging about his role in the raid in bars around Virginia Beach, Virginia, where SEAL Team 6 is based. In the Esquire article, the Shooter complains he is receiving no pension, since he left the military four years before the minimum 20 required to be eligible.
CNN spoke with Bronstein, the Esquire writer, who says he passed on CNN's written questions about the Shooter's role in the bin Laden raid to his story's main character. The Shooter has not responded to those questions and Bronstein declined to be interviewed on-the-record for this story.
Stephanie Tuck, a spokeswoman for Esquire, said via e-mail, "The Esquire article, 'The Shooter: The Man Who Killed Osama Bin Laden,' in the March 2013 issue, is based on information from numerous sources, including members of SEAL Team 6 and the Shooter himself, as well as detailed descriptions of mission debriefs. We stand by our story."
According to present and former members of SEAL Team 6, the "point man" who fired the shot that likely mortally wounded bin Laden will never "in a million years" speak publicly about his role in the raid. All laud the point man for his courageous decision to throw himself on the two women in bin Laden's room.
The new account of the night of the bin Laden raid provided by the serving SEAL Team 6 operator is essentially the same as in Bissonnette's "No Easy Day." Bissonnette says he was one of the first to run into bin Laden's bedroom and he saw that the point man's shots had mortally wounded bin Laden, and Bissonette then shot the dying al Qaeda leader as he lay on the floor.
Present and former members of SEAL Team 6 say they regard Bissonnette as more credible than the Shooter.
In a previous CNN.com story about the Esquire profile, I noted that I was the only outside observer allowed to tour bin Laden's Abbottabad compound before it was demolished in late February 2012.
During that tour I looked around the bedroom where bin Laden was killed. The Pakistani military officers who were guiding me pointed out a patch of dark, dried blood on the low ceiling of bin Laden's bedroom. This patch of congealed blood seems to be consistent with the Shooter's story that he fired two shots at the forehead of a "surprisingly tall terrorist" while he was standing up. At the time, the precise location of bin Laden when he was shot was not a matter of dispute.
But the blood patch could also be consistent with the account that it was the "point man" who first shot bin Laden. The point man is 5 feet 6 inches tall and was shooting upward at a tall man as he poked his head out of his bedroom.
The compound is, of course, now gone, so it is no longer possible to reconstruct what happened the night of the raid based on forensic evidence, although it is possible the Abbottabad Commission, a panel that was appointed by the Pakistani government to look into the raid, could shed some light on this question should its findings ever be publicly released.
Finally, by all accounts, it was a confusing situation the night of the bin Laden raid in Abbottabad. One of the SEAL team's helicopters had crashed and there was then a firefight with one of bin Laden bodyguards. All the electricity in the bin Laden compound and indeed the surrounding neighborhood was off on a moonless night and the SEALs were all wearing night vision goggles that allowed them only quite limited vision.
What seems incontrovertible is that the point man, the Shooter and Bissonnette were the first three SEALs to assault bin Laden's bedroom. But to determine exactly which of them killed bin Laden may never be possible.
What is certain is that it was a team effort.
Five days after the bin Laden raid, members of the SEAL team who killed al Qaeda's leader briefed President Obama. According to those in the room, the SEAL team commander explained to the president, "If you took one person out of the puzzle, we wouldn't have the competence to do the job we did; everybody's vital. It's not about the guy who pulled the trigger to kill bin Laden, it's about what we all did together."
credit: 





Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Harry Potter-Like Invisibility Cloak Works (in a Lab)


A miniature version of Harry Potter's invisibility cloak now exists, though it works only in microwave light, and not visible light, so far.
Still, it's a nifty trick, and the physicists who've created the new cloak say it's a step closer to realizing the kind ofinvisibility cloak that could hide a person in broad daylight.

The invention is made of a new kind of material called a metascreen, created from strips of copper tape attached to a flexible polycarbonate film. The copper strips are only 66 micrometers (66 millionths of a meter) thick, while the polycarbonate film is 100 micrometers thick, and the two are combined in a diagonal fishnet pattern.


The creation is a departure from previous attempts to create invisibility cloaks, which have aimed to bend light rays around an object so that they don't scatter, or reflect off it, a technique that relies on so-called bulk metamaterials. Instead, the new cloak uses a technique called mantle cloaking to cancel out light waves that bounce off the shielded object so that none survive to reach an observer's eye. [10 Real-Life Sci-Fi Inventions]
"When the scattered fields from the cloak and the object interfere, they cancel each other out and the overall effect is transparency and invisibility at all angles of observation," study co-author Andrea Alu, a physicist at the University of Texas at Austin, said in a statement.
In lab tests, Alu and his colleagues successfully hid a 7-inch-long (18 centimeters) cylindrical rod from view in microwave light. They said the same technology should be able to cloak oddly shaped and asymmetrical objects, too.

"The advantages of the mantle cloaking over existing techniques are its conformability, ease of manufacturing and improved bandwidth," Alu said. "We have shown that you don't need a bulk metamaterial to cancel the scattering from an object — a simple patterned surface that is conformal to the object may be sufficient and, in many regards, even better than a bulk metamaterial."
In principle, the same kind of cloak could be used to hide objects in the visible range of light, as well, though it may work only for teensy-tiny objects, at least at first.

"In fact, metascreens are easier to realize at visible frequencies than bulk metamaterials and this concept could put us closer to a practical realization," Alu said. "However, the size of the objects that can be efficiently cloaked with this method scales with the wavelength of operation, so when applied to optical frequencies we may be able to efficiently stop the scattering of micrometer-sized objects."
The invention isn't just a novelty to thrill Harry Potter fans and aspiring spies. The researchers say it could have practical applications down the line, such as in noninvasive sensing devices or in biomedical instruments. They described their device in a paper published in the March 26 issue of the New Journal of Physics.
CREDIT: Livescience.com


How to Try Android Apps Before Buying?


Google’s online Android Market, now called Google Play, is huge with more than 200,000 apps for your Android mobile phone and tablets. A lot of these Android Apps are available as free downloads while the paid apps can cost anywhere between 99 ¢ and $200.
Amazon runs a parallel online store for Android Apps and one good thing about Amazon’s store is that it lets you test and test apps before you actually buy them.

Paid Android Apps – Try before your Buy

Say you have found an interesting app in Google’s Android Market that you are quite willing to buy but as the app price is a bit on the expensive side, you would like to use the app and test the various features before loosening your purse strings.
Google doesn’t offer “try before you buy” apps but there’s an easy workaround that will help you test any paid app before buying it – you buy an app from the Android market, use it for about 10-12 minutes and then refund the app. The app will be uninstalled from your mobile phone and your account won’t be charged.

How to Refund an Android App

It take a few easy steps to refund an app to the Android Market:
Step 1: Visit the Google Android Market, either on your desktop or your mobile phone, and buy any of the ‘paid’ apps.
Step 2: The app is now installed on your mobile phone. Launch the app and you can test it for the next 10-12 minutes.
Step 3. Go back to the Android Market app on your mobile phone and under “My Apps,” tap the app name that you are trying to refund. Hit the “Refund” button and the app will automatically uninstall from your mobile phone.
Step 4. Once the App has been uninstalled, it may ask you to specify a reason for removing the app. You can check “I’d rather not say” here and the app amount will be refunded. You’ll also get an email from Google saying:
You have uninstalled the application from your phone. We have cancelled your order and you have not been charged.
The refund process is quite easy and 10 minutes are often enough for you to get a good idea about an app. I tried this with at least two different paid apps and the whole thing worked without a hitch. There are however two things regarding Google’s refund policy that you should know:
1. You only have 15 minutes to return an app to the Android Market from the time of download after which the “refund” option will disappear from the app.
2. You can return an app only once; if you refund an app and purchase it again, you won’t be able to refund it to the Android Market.
credit: labnol.org



Brain scans predict which criminals are more likely to reoffend

In a twist that evokes the dystopian science fiction of writer Philip K. Dick, neuroscientists have found a way to predict whether convicted felons are likely to commit crimes again from looking at their brain scans. Convicts showing low activity in a brain region associated with decision-making and action are more likely to be arrested again, and sooner.

Kent Kiehl, a neuroscientist at the non-profit Mind Research Network in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and his collaborators studied a group of 96 male prisoners just before their release. The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan the prisoners’ brains during computer tasks in which subjects had to make quick decisions and inhibit impulsive reactions.
The scans focused on activity in a section of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a small region in the front of the brain involved in motor control and executive functioning. The researchers then followed the ex-convicts for four years to see how they fared.
Among the subjects of the study, men who had lower ACC activity during the quick-decision tasks were more likely to be arrested again after getting out of prison, even after the researchers accounted for other risk factors such as age, drug and alcohol abuse and psychopathic traits. Men who were in the lower half of the ACC activity ranking had a 2.6-fold higher rate of rearrest for all crimes and a 4.3-fold higher rate for nonviolent crimes. The results are published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences1.
There is growing interest in using neuroimaging to predict specific behaviour, says Tor Wager, a neuroscientist at the University of Colorado in Boulder. He says that studies such as this one, which tie brain imaging to concrete clinical outcomes, “provide a new and so far very promising way” to find patterns of brain activity that have broader implications for society.
But the authors themselves stress that much more work is needed to prove that the technique is reliable and consistent, and that it is likely to flag only the truly high-risk felons and leave the low-risk ones alone. “This isn't ready for prime time,” says Kiehl.
Wager adds that the part of the ACC examined in this study “is one of the most frequently activated areas in the human brain across all kinds of tasks and psychological states”. Low ACC activity could have a variety of causes — impulsivity, caffeine use, vascular health, low motivation or better neural efficiency — and not all of these are necessarily related to criminal behaviour.
Crime prediction was the subject of Dick's 1956 short story “The Minority Report” (adapted for the silver screen by Steven Spielberg in 2002), which highlighted the thorny ethics of arresting people for crimes they had yet to commit.
Brain scans are of course a far cry from the clairvoyants featured in that science-fiction story. But even if the science turns out to be reliable, the legal and social implications remain to be explored, the authors warn. Perhaps the most appropriate use for neurobiological markers would be for helping to make low-stakes decisions, such as which rehabilitation treatment to assign a prisoner, rather than high-stakes ones such as sentencing or releasing on parole.
“A treatment of [these clinical neuroimaging studies] that is either too glibly enthusiastic or over-critical,” Wager says, “will be damaging for this emerging science in the long run.”
CREDIT:Nature.com

Monday, March 25, 2013

180,000 Deaths Worldwide Each Year May Be Associated With Sugary Soft Drinks, Research Suggests


Sugar-sweetened beverages are consumed throughout the world, and contribute to excess body weight, which increases the risk of developing diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and some cancers. Using data collected as part of the 2010 Global Burden of Diseases Study, the researchers linked intake of sugar- sweetened beverages to 133,000 diabetes deaths, 44,000 deaths from cardiovascular diseases and 6,000 cancer deaths. Seventy-eight percent of these deaths due to over-consuming sugary drinks were in low and middle-income countries, rather than high-income countries.
"In the U.S., our research shows that about 25,000 deaths in 2010 were linked to drinking sugar-sweetened beverages," said Gitanjali M. Singh, Ph.D., co-author of the study and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Mass.
Researchers calculated the quantities of sugar-sweetened beverage intake around the world by age and sex; the effects of this consumption on obesity and diabetes; and the impact of obesity and diabetes-related deaths. Of nine world regions, Latin America/Caribbean had the most diabetes deaths (38,000) related to the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages in 2010. East/Central Eurasia had the largest numbers of cardiovascular deaths (11,000) related to sugary beverage consumption in 2010. Among the world's 15 most populous countries, Mexico -- one of the countries with the highest per-capita consumption of sugary beverages in the world -- had the highest death rate due to these beverages, with 318 deaths per million adults linked to sugar-sweetened beverage intake.
Japan, one of the countries with lowest per-capita consumption of sugary beverages in the world, had the lowest death rate associated with the consumption of sugary beverages, at about 10 deaths due to per million adults.
"Because we were focused on deaths due to chronic diseases, our study focused on adults. Future research should assess the amount of sugary beverage consumption in children across the world and how this affects their current and future health," Singh said.
The Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 is an international, collaborative, systematic effort to quantify the global distribution and causes of major diseases, injuries and health risk factors.
The American Heart Association recommends adults consume no more than 450 calories per week, from sugar-sweetened beverages , based on a 2,000 calorie diet and offers tips on how Life's Simple 7™ can help you make better lifestyle choices and eat healthier.
Co-authors are Dariush Mozaffarian, M.D., Dr.PH. (senior author); Renata Micha, Ph.D.; Shahab Katibzadeh, M.D., M.P.H.; Stephen Lim, Ph.D.; and Majid Ezzati, Ph.D. Author disclosures are on the manuscript.
The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases funded the study.
Credit:Sciencedaily


Monday, March 18, 2013

Bollywood wins big at National Film Awards


(Reuters) - "Paan Singh Tomar", based on the true story of an Indian athlete who turns into a dreaded outlaw, struck gold at the National Film Awards announced on Monday, winning prizes for best film and best actor in a rare triumph for Bollywood.

In its citation, a jury headed by film-maker Basu Chatterjee praised the movie directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia, lauding its "sleek and sensitive handling of a not-too-common subject with remarkable aplomb."

Irrfan, who played Paan Singh Tomar in the film, shared acting honours with Vikram Gokhale who won for the Marathi film "Anumati".

Bollywood films usually play second fiddle to regional language cinema at the National Awards, but prevailed in key categories this year.

"Vicky Donor", a light-hearted take on sperm donation, won trophies for the male and female supporting roles and shared the award for best popular film with the Malayalam movie "Ustad Hotel".

Annu Kapoor won the supporting actor honour for his turn as the fertility clinic doctor in "Vicky Donor", while Dolly Ahluwalia, who played the sperm donor's mother in the film, shared the supporting actress prize with Kalpana for the Malayalam film "Thanichalla Njan".

Usha Jadhav won the best actress prize for portraying "a rustic housewife in an unlikely setting of a cremation ground" in the Marathi film "Dhag", which also earned Shivaji Lotan Patil the award for best director.

A special jury award came Bollywood's way with actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui honoured for his performance in four Hindi films - "Kahaani", "Gangs of Wasseypur", "Talaash" and "Dekh Indian Circus". Actress Parineeti Chopra got a special mention for her performance in Habib Faisal's

"Ishaqzaade".
Nikhil Advani's "Delhi Safari" was adjudged the best animation film while Mangesh Hadawale's "Dekh Indian Circus" won for best children's film.
The song ‘Bolo Na' in "Chittagong" won two awards - male playback singer for Shankar Mahadevan and best lyrics for Prasoon Joshi.
Bollywood also dominated the screenplay category with Sujoy Ghosh picking up the original screenplay award for "Kahaani", a thriller about a pregnant woman searching for her missing husband in Kolkata. Bhavesh Mandalia and Umesh Shukla won for their adapted screenplay of "Oh My God".
In the editing category, Namrata Rao was honoured for her work in "Kahaani".
Kamal Haasan's Tamil film "Vishwaroopam", which was mired in controversy with some Muslim groups protesting over its alleged depiction of the community in a negative light, won awards for best choreography (Birju Maharaj) and best production design (Boontawee Taweepasas and Lalgudi N. Ilayaraja).
The National Film Awards will be presented at a ceremony later this year by President Pranab Mukherjee.
(Reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Writing by Tony Tharakan)
CREDIT:Reuters

One bride for five brothers.


A YOUNG mum told last night how she has five husbands — who are all BROTHERS.


Rajo Verma, 21, lives in a one-room shack with all five, sleeping with a different one each night 

on a rotaThe housewife has no idea which one is the father of her toddler son.

She said: “Initially it felt a bit awkward. But I don’t favour one over the other.”

Husband Guddu, 21 — the first to make her his bride — insisted: “We all have sex with her but 

I’m not jealous. We’re one big happy family.”

The couple got hitched in an arranged Hindu marriage four years ago and he remains her 

only official spouse.


But the custom in their village is she had to take as husbands his brothers Bajju, 32, Sant Ram, 

28, Gopal, 26, and Dinesh — who married her last year when he turned 18.

Eldest brother Bajju said: “I consider her my wife and sleep with her like my brothers.” Rajo 

cooks, cleans and looks after 18-month-old Jay while her hubbies go out to work in Dehradun, 

northern India.

She said of the ancient tradition, called polyandry: “My mother was also married to three 

brothers so when I got wed I knew I had to accept all of them as my husbands.

“I sleep with them in turn. We don’t have beds, just lots of blankets on the floor.

“I get a lot more attention and love than most wives.

CREDIT:The sun.co.uk